Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Is Vikram Pandit worth $14.9 million?



Mr. Pandit is the CEO of Citigroup, Inc., which owns Citibank. The Citigroup board of directors plans to pay him $14.9 million this year.

So far, big whup. Another CEO getting another unbelievably obscene pay package from another board that thinks it has to pay its CEO about $286,538 a week in order to "retain top talent."

But wait. Citigroup shareholders just said "No." About 55% of votes were cast AGAINST approving this pay package for Pandit. It's a non-binding vote, so the board can go ahead and pay the whole $14.9 million if it wants to…..

But the point is, shareholders of Citigroup just proved that it's not a complete waste of your time to vote against excessive executive pay. The next time you get a chance to vote your shares at the annual meeting of a company whose stock you own, do what you think is right.


I wonder what Pandit would have done differently this year if the board had planned to pay him only $7 million, that is, the same as he was paid last year. No pay raise. Only $7 million.

What would he have done differently as top dog at Citigroup? Do you think he would have slacked off? Do you think he would have quit?

CEO pay, another whopper...



2 comments:

  1. And Matt Laurer gets paid 25 million a year for the Today Show. I guess he is just twice as valuable Pandit who only runs one of the biggest banks in the world. And really those dollars don't count anyway because our beloved President has run the dollar into the ground!!

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  2. More to the point, I think just about nobody is worth $15 million a year, or $25 million a year......

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